A judge has released [Robel Phillipos] one of the friends of Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on $100,000 bond while awaiting trial. (VOA)
U.S. citizen Robel Phillipos is to be released to home confinement and monitoring with an electronic bracelet.
Phillipos is charged with lying to investigators looking into the deadly April 15 bombings.
Two other friends – Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, originally from Kazakhstan – are to appear in court next week on charges of obstruction of justice and destroying evidence. Investigators charge the three lied about visiting Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the bombings and removing evidence.
Meanwhile, the funeral home holding the remains of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev cannot find a place to bury him and may seek help from state officials. Tsarnaev’s parents in Dagestan say they will not fly his body back to Russia.
The 26-year-old Tsarnaev died after being shot by police and run over by a vehicle driven by his brother Dzhokhar four days after the marathon attack.
If convicted, Phillipos could go to prison for eight years and be fined as much as $250,000. Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev face five-year prison sentences and $250,000 in fines.
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Tadias Magazine
News Update
Published: Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
New York (TADIAS) – 19-year-old Robel Phillipos is one of three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing case, who was arrested Wednesday on charges related to cover-up and misleading investigators after the incident on Monday, April 15th. While Robel is a U.S. citizen the other two, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both 19, are foreign students from Kazakhstan.
According to the criminal complaint Azamat and Dias are accused of removing evidence including a backpack and laptop from Dzhokhar’s dorm room following the marathon day bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260. Robel, who is said to have been aware of Azamat’s and Dias’ actions, is charged with lying to federal agents about it. And, if convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison along with a $250,000 fine.
The trio were students with the bombing suspect at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2011. Robel was also a high school classmate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Per CNN: “A yearbook photograph shows a smiling Phillipos. Almost directly in front of him, Tsarnaev stares at the camera — his hand gently resting under his chin. A friend described Phillipos as a ‘good kid. He went to school, never got in trouble, took care of his mom,’ James Turney told CNN affiliate WBZ. “He was not really outgoing, stayed in the house a lot, did homework, got good grades.”
The CNN report noted that Robel plays basketball. He doesn’t have “any anti-American thing about him,” Turney said. “It just doesn’t make sense. Robel doesn’t have anything to do with this, or what happened, so I don’t see why he’s being arrested,” he told WBZ.
Police say the accused, who appeared before a federal judge in Boston on Wednesday afternoon, did not aid Tsarnaev in the bombings.
Click here to read the criminal complaint (PDF).
Watch: 3 Friends Of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Arrested (CBS)
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Related:
Who are Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos? (CNN)
How the Name “Mulugeta” Got into Social Media Frenzy (TADIAS)
Suspect Charged in Boston Bombing (VOA News)
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